Jamaica Kincaid's incantatory, poetic, and often shockingly frank recounting of her brother Devon Drew's life is also the story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation centered on the powerful, sometimes threatening figure of the writer's mother. Kincaid's unblinking record of a life that ed too early speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families.

Notes on "My Brother" by Jamaica Kincaid

I'm not sure what I think of this book. I enjoy the memoir genre and her situation is ripe, but the writing itself is a bit heavy-handed, a bit pretentious. Some of her descriptions are just plain rid ...continue

I'm not sure what I think of this book. I enjoy the memoir genre and her situation is ripe, but the writing itself is a bit heavy-handed, a bit pretentious. Some of her descriptions are just plain ridiculous, and she digresses often. She over uses a gimmick employed to identify a man as her father when he is not her biological father. And it gets very old when she keeps writing the same things over and over, ex. "My mother (also the mother of my brother)," and, "My brother (brother of my brothers, brother of myself, son of his mother, son of my mother) ..." Those are not direct quotes, but you will find similar lines littering this manuscript, which I think is more a really long journal entry rather than a memoir worthy of publication. So, I guess I do know what I think of it.